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Monday, 30 May 2016

Hello everyone and welcome. I have been a terrible blogger lately and I do apologize, but life is crazy busy for me right now, and sometimes visiting blogs has to take a back seat, sorry about that.
I am still on a mission to use up some of my stash, ink up some rarely used stamps and for this project even used some paints from my watercolour palette that were left over from other projects.

I made a mini book out of 1 piece of 12 by 12 card, and today I am just showing you the inside pages:

Each little page was pretty much done in the same way. I used some leftover bits of scrapbook paper, cut them to the correct size (3 3/4 by 5 3/4"), and then gave them a coat of clear gesso. This stops the paints from soaking straight into the paper, I then added further colour with the help of some watercolours and Distress Inks here and there, added stamped detail, some crackle glaze and Antiquing Creams and finally some Prima adhesive rub on bits by Christine Adolph, and foiled them with gold.
Below some close ups from the individual pages:

Below finally is the back cover. The front cover I will share in a few days time as I made it for a design team piece.

There are pockets between the pages, and I will make tags to go inside. The size of the pockets is perfect for a standard size 8 tag. If you are interested to know how to put a book like this together, I did a tutorial a while back, - you can find detailed instructions HERE

Well, that's it for now, thank you for dropping by like always and have a good week!

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping by here. It's been a bit quiet here lately, but that is because I have been busy trying to teach myself to draw better..... I have been studying a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, and it's jolly hard I tell you (and to be honest, not always a whole lot of fun). Anyway, today I decided to give myself a bit of a break and pulled out some stamps, stencils and my all time favourite Distress Inks, and just had a bit of good old crafting fun....

I made a trio of tags using some wildflower stamps and stencils and then made them into a triptych.

I used similar techniques and colours to make them into a little set.

For this one the main stamp was clear embossed, I blended my chosen Distress Inks around it and then I stamped and stencilled the background and doodled around the edges. The butterflies on all three were stamped and then fussy cut.

This one was done in a slightly different way. The ivy in the background was stencilled with gesso. Then I blended my Distress Inks all over and then did further stencilling, this time with Cobalt Archival ink. The berries in the foreground were from another stencil (Indigoblu). I first stencilled it again with gesso and then added colour with Inktense pencils and a white gel pen.

This one finally was done pretty much like the first one again.

Alright, so now I will be brave and share my drawing attempts with you also, all of them were done just with an HB and B2 pencil mostly.

This was a pre-instruction drawing of my hand that you are asked to do, to see how you will improve by following the exercises in the book.

My hand again, this time against a tinted background. I used the wrong stuff, so it turned into a mess when I was rubbing out mistakes. This one was done with a view finder and one eye closed (tricky I tell you).....

A drawing of a chair, again using a viewfinder, one eye closed and trying to see the negative space. There are no perspective techniques here, you are just supposed to draw what you see by looking at the spaces around and between the actual object. It probably looks easy, but it is super hard I tell you, I struggled like anything with this one, oh and by the way, the cushion really did look like that.

This is the last drawing I have done so far and by far the trickiest. It's a copy of a drawing by Winslow Homer and the exercise again was to copy the negative spaces. It took me at least two hours to do this one...

Well, that's it for now, thank you for baring with me and I hope you are having a good week!

Sunday, 15 May 2016

Hi al and like always, thank you for taking the time to drop in.
As my crafty/arty journey is slowly starting to change, I am increasingly wondering what to do with all the supplies I have collected over the years....

Well, here was a fun little idea I found on Pinterest. A tag accordion booklet created with some of those endless left over papers and collage bits that I have and that are filling up boxes and drawers...

I cut the tags with the Tim Holtz die, connected two at a time with wide double sided tape and then covered the backs with further tags cut from design/ scrapbook papers. Below some close ups:

A mix of Prima paper and Kaisercraft ephemera pieces.

More Prima and image from Paper Whimsy.

More of the same

A few words were added here and there using Tim Holtz word stickers.

Here the back of the booklet, using up further papers.

The whole booklet folds together accordion style of course, and can be held together with a book ring.

Or opened up and decorate a shelf or mantle piece somewhere.

Well, that's it, quick, easy, fun to do and good to use up some of those leftovers we all have collected.

Thursday, 12 May 2016

Hello all and thanks for dropping by here. A couple of weeks ago I created a cover for a little Moleskine Sketchbook, it looked like this:

The full description of how I made it can be seen here in case you missed it. Anyway, today I thought I would show you some of the pages inside... It is a mix of watercolour, ink and pencil work, and please bare with me, it's baby steps for sure, as I practise to get better at painting and drawing..... Anyway, here goes:

There is nothing that I find more difficult than architecture and perspective. Of course I kind of know about horizon line, vanishing points etc, - but knowing and actually managing, is quite a different thing..

I seem to have a fascination with Hawthorn, so the page above shows first the blossoms, then the berries. I am trying to learn to paint more loosely and less precise...

The drawing below was copied from a photograph I found on line, always good to practice birds. On the whole I find drawing a lot easier than painting.

This one was done with watercolour pencil mostly and then finished with some light washes of paint.

Here finally a double page that I have called reflection on an ordinary day. A view from my bedroom window, and a little study on blueberries which I love to have for breakfast.

Well, that's it for today, thanks for indulging me as I practice, practice practice. Hope you are all having a good week and see you next time.

Monday, 9 May 2016

Hello all, so happy to see you here! May seems to be flying by, - where is the year going....?
Anyway, today I want to share some new freebies with you and also a little preview of a project I am sharing today on A Vintage Journey, where in fact I am using one of the papers as part of the project. Hope you'll take the time to look.
Anyway, here are the freebies, they are designed to be printed 8" x 8".

Like always, by TOU are easy, you can use these papers for whatever you like, you are welcome to sell what you make with them, please just don't sell the papers as they are in whatever form.

Friday, 6 May 2016

Hello everyone! It's the first Friday of the month and that means a new challenge is starting at A Vintage Journey! The wonderful Jenny has chosen the theme Sew Special. This is what I made:

This is what Jenny had to say about the challenge:Add fabric to your entry in some way be it felt, burlap, ribbon or cloth and if you're really feeling brave maybe include a touch of real or faux stitching! We are looking forward to seeing what ideas you have to incorporate this sew special theme in your vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk projects.

Now when I first heard about the theme, I was filled with trepidation, - sewing and me just don't go together, but adding some fabric to a project is no big deal, so in the end I decided to make a very vintage shabby chic project, it's a large card with a pocket that can hold a gift card or tag.

I started with a piece of sticky back canvas that I have had in my stash for ever. I added some Ranger translucent texture paste through one of Tim's layering stencils and let it dry.

I added some colour using Distress Sprays: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet and as you can see it became a complete mess, specially when I added some stamping. At that point I was nearly ready to ditch it all and start over, but then decided to simply cover it all up to hide the worst bits.

I don't own the Dress form die but happened to have some die-cuts purchased on ebay years ago, so I traced around the middle part for the dress (made from a gelli print paper), and decided that would be my focal point.

I also made a flower, made from crinoline and cut with the tattered florals die.

A couple of little ribbon spools, cut with a die designed by my friend Baerbel Born. As you can see I tied some bits of lace around them.

A pair of scissors charm to go with the sewing theme was also dug out of my stash to be added.

And a little doily to cover up the worst parts of the background behind the dressform....

I layered it all up, added some lace to the side and the front was pretty much done.

The substrate for my card was an 8.5 by 11 piece of Manila card stock folded in half, I put tissue tape right around the edges and then added this pretty vintage piece of rice paper to the inside.

The pocket was made with the distressed doily die and cut from a piece of card covered with the top layer of a paper napkin in similar colour tones.

The little gift card/tag carries on the vintage sewing theme, both on the back and the front.

And here the tag sitting in its pocket.

Below finally you can see the back of the card. Adding a similar style with the use of some La Blanche stamps.

Well, that's it for now, my vintage sew special project, all complete.

If you haven't been there already, please hop over to A Vintage Journey to see the projects my teamies have created. I promise you will not be disappointed! And please feel free to join in our challenge, we would love to see what you come up with!

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Just got a whole lot of new stamps from a brilliant place called the Stamp Smith. This is the image that I first saw on Docraft and really liked. I asked the friend who has used it in an ATC, where she got it. Well she borrowed it from a friend who got it from ebay as a one off. But.... it had a title. I googled the title, and hey presto found the site. They have great stamps and offer a really friendly fast service. I highly recommend them!

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